Startrek: Evolution
by Raidein Thunder
Summary: Captain William J. Blakes is the newest and last captain of the starship Enterprise. Startrek: Evolution, tells the tale of mankind's evolution into the ultimate being that Q feared.
1. Chapter 1

_**StarTrek: Evolution**_

Space: the final frontier…These are the voyages of the last starship Enterprise. Its final five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before. I am Captain William J. Blakes of the Federation starship NCC 2701 Enterprise. This is the first and, as the fates will have it, the last starship to bear the designation 2701. However, if you would to tell me that I would have an important place in history when I received the orders placing the ship under my command, I would have punched you in the face. Many of you may think I am simply joking, and I can't say that I wouldn't like to think I was too, but unfortunately, I have never been the kidding type. Space: not the final frontier…

Our first mission was the routine test of a new ship and our launch included all the normal fanfare. There was absolutely nothing special about what we were doing. Sure I was the captain of the latest ship to hold the name Enterprise, but I had so many predecessors who have so many different great things in command of the flagship of Starfleet that I really didn't think much of the new position. Both the Klingons and the Romulans had long since joined the Federation. The Cardassians and their former Dominion allies were both vital members in the alliance. Starfleet assaults, with the help of the newest member of the Federation, Species 8472, against the Borg had succeeded in wiping it from existence; freeing countless planets and peoples who pledged their lives to the Federation. The Beta quadrant was fully explored, and it too soon fell beneath the peaceful curtain of Federation rule. The utopia found on Earth had been brought to every member world in the entire galaxy, so there was quite simply no struggle and nothing to do. Being captain of the Enterprise was now little more than a glorified term for baby sitter. The battle against everything evil or bad or even unpleasant had been won…

Or, so I thought. It really is amazing how quickly paradise can turn to mush in the most unexpected of ways. Centuries ago a group of humans, Vulcans, and Klingons became dissatisfied with the status quo and life without struggle or any adversity. They had left for parts unknown, and by my time they had become nothing more than a footnote in an obscure history book which no one chose to read. I don't know where they had been or what exactly happened, but what I do know is that the galaxy would never be the same. That was our first mission, meeting the representatives of the "Con-Federation" as they called themselves. Their leader was a Klingon, I think. The Federation Science Council said that after years of interbreeding among the three races there really weren't three races anymore, but I could tell that this one clearly favored his Klingon roots because of the way he addressed himself to me. He declared himself High Chancellor K'Phan and immediately challenged me to a fight to the death when I told him that we should meet in person. It took some convincing, but he eventually settled down and beamed over to my ship. I thought he had calmed down, until he challenged my android, model Soong XII, science officer, Cylon, to a similar duel. I had grown tired of K'Phan's antics so I gave the go ahead. It was quite amusing to see K'Phan beaten to an inch of death; killing the leader of a new civilization is bad for business. He was calm from that point on.

After some debate about the shape of the table in the conference room, I finally sat down with K'Phan and opened official diplomatic relations. He had only one "simple" request. He wanted the entire Federation to sign an unconditional surrender to him. I was shocked to say the least at such a bold statement. All I could think of to say was the ancient cliché, "You and what army?" The irony of those words is still something that I think of with shame, because as soon as I said that K'Phan motioned to his guard and the largest fleet assembled since the Dominion Wars of the 24th century decloaked right in front of my eyes. I didn't know what to think. Seeing countless ships gathered before me was truly awe-inspiring. If not for my Vorta first officer Luaran, I think I would have stared at that fleet with my jaw wide open for hours. It is during this time, I'm told, that K'Phan beamed back to his ship. My Andorian tactical officer's, Telev's, antennae moved erratically when he uttered the second phrase which will haunt me for the rest of my life, "We are outmatched, sir." No sooner had he said that than I ordered the ship to return to Earth and Starfleet Command at maximum warp. Even before we reached our destination, we received the terrible news. Romulus, Remus, Qo'nos, and Cardassia all defected to the Con-Federation. It seems that none of those planets enjoyed the peace the Federation brought and desired the battle and war that the Con-Federation would most definitely bring.

This was not the first time in history that the Federation faced impossible odds, but it would be the last. The admirals at Starfleet Command had decided a few decades before that there was no reason for their ships, my ships, to be armed anymore. They spouted such rhetoric as, "We are explorers," or, "Why waste the time and effort making weapons? That is simply going to encourage the next hot shot captain to use them to prove his bravery. The best thing we can do is to arm none of them so that our personnel will be forced to find better options than war," or, the worst of them all, "We come in peace, not war. We mustn't prepare ourselves for something we will not let happen." You can tell that those admirals had been behind their desk for far too long. They no longer were able to see that the galaxy is a big place, and one never knows what will happen. All they saw was an opportunity during peacetime high atop the acropolis that is Starfleet Command to further their own personal moral agendas. I guess I shouldn't be too hard of them; after all, this policy did work. The reunification of Romulus and Vulcan had gone much more smoothly once the Romulans discovered that their negotiators were completely unarmed. The Vulcans appreciated the logic of a peace-seeking race having no capacity for war and were much more willing to make compromises. Whatever the circumstances of the disarmament and the positive outcomes, we were defenseless now. However, Starfleet was the only major galactic power to do this. The Federation had tried to convince the other three major powers in the galaxy to follow suit, but they wouldn't or couldn't comply. The Klingons had a proud militaristic tradition; the Cardassian economy was so heavily invested in the military, that they couldn't disarm, and the Romulan Tal'Shiar maintained a large, if secret, fleet. Understandably so, these were the three worlds that joined the Con-Federation. They would see all that my processors like Archer, Kirk, Picard, and even Roberts, captain of the Enterprise during the Temporal Cold War, destroyed for no other reason than their love for war.

I asked Telev if there were any emergency modifications that we could use to create any weapons on our ship.

"We could reconfigure a few of the shield generators to direct their energy into a focused beam, but that would significantly weaken our shield grid, and I don't know how powerful it would be."

"Right now shields aren't going to help us. We need a weapon, and we need it now. Begin the modifications. Use whatever manpower and resources you need to get this done. You need to get this done."

This plan of his was a long shot, and Andorians have never struck me as an ingenious people, but I trusted Telev. He always had a knack for survival that I knew I could count on. Looking back on it all now, one moment of his inability to let himself die stands out. We were exploring a cave on a world that had a history of seismic activity. Sensors orbiting the planet had not registered an earthquake for a century and suspected that there may be evidence of an ancient civilization from a period of similar geological stability, so Starfleet sent orders to investigate. Their predictions were wrong, very wrong. As soon as we entered the cave, the ground beneath us started shaking. Years of training for the worst possibly scenario and even more living them couldn't have prepared either of us for this. In moments we were thrown all the way to the other side of the cave where there was a significant drop in elevation. I grabbed a rock jutting out from the ground and held on waiting for the after shock. He accused me of being an overly cautious pink-skin and began to walk out of the cave. That was when the after shock came. He was thrown once again to the back, and I thought he fell to his death down the cliff. After the earthquake was completely over, I looked. He was hanging on to the edge of the cliff with his antennae. I dragged him up and out of there, and when we returned to the ship, he bought me a drink. From that day forward, I knew that when trouble starts to stay close to him because he will survive, if only by the skin of his antennae.

I never liked surprises. There just isn't a point to them that I ever saw. If something was important enough or special enough for me to want to see it, the fact that I see it is much more important than its delivery. That's why I have always really hated this week. Sunday, the orders transferring me to the Enterprise were delivered by a flamboyant and overly enthusiastic admiral who for some reason took a liking to me ever since the academy. Every single time I got a promotion, a medal, a commendation, or even a citation for good service, he was there, and he always gave me a surprise party. So, by this point I really was tired of it. The party was okay; I suppose if not for the admiral's daughter. I've started to think that is why the admiral takes a special interest in me. His daughter is absolutely in-love with me. I have tried to let her know time and again that I am simply not interested in her. She is pretty, nice, and sweet enough, but I have never been attracted to her. I have told her this many times, but she is her father's daughter, very persistent. Now that I am in my thirties, the admiral keeps pressuring me to settle down and get married, specifically to his daughter. At least now I will have an excuse for not doing so. Like those who captained the Enterprise before me, I am married to the ship and can never leave her. At least, that is what I thought back then. Tuesday was the day I met the High Chancellor of the Con-Federation and the big surprise of his gigantic interstellar battle fleet. Thursday, the biggest surprise of them all revealed itself to me. Someone new boarded my ship. This wouldn't be the first time he has terrorized Enterprise captains, but I really hoped that I wasn't important enough for him to bother annoying me. My luck that week was really bad though, because when he made his big entrance, as a pirate, he announced he wasn't planning on leaving.

"Greetings Captain, I would just like to formally introduce myself to you and all of your swashbuckling sailors. I arr Q."

"Why the hell are you on my ship? What gives you the right to continually annoy and belittle Starfleet captains?"

"Now, now, Blakey-Boy, I really hope you aren't nearly this rude to all of your guests, especially one such as myself who is here to join your motley crew. I want to sail the seven seas in this 'ere fine sailin' vessel."

"Are you telling me that I will have to endure your presence for an extended period of time?"

"Aye, I am tellin' you this. I'll even let you in on a little surprise you scurvy dog you. You will have an important place in history as captain of the Enterprise."

I punched him right then and there. I told you that I wasn't a kidding man.


	2. Chapter 2

"Captain Picard never punched me! Here I was trying to be civil and you go and hit me like that. Most people would have liked hearing that they are destined for great things. Captain Sisko was a religious icon for an entire planet! But he never found the need to punch someone simply because they called him the Emissary."

"As I remember from the academy, Sisko _did_ punch you."

"Well, yes, I guess he did, but he only did that once. I saw him plenty of other times in which he was quite civil."

"Either way, I am not Picard or Sisko. I am Captain Blakes, and I do not like surprises."

"Did you think punching me was a very pleasant surprise? I mean I coulda been a contenda! I was one fight away from making it big! But instead some palooka knocked me out in the third round and sent me down to some rat infested dump in the ghetto."

"What the hell are you talking about? You know what, I don't want to know. Just tell me how I can get rid of you."

"That is an easy answer. If you want to get rid of me, you will have to evolve into a vastly superior being than the Q and then will me away. Until you can do that, I think I will prefer to stay. I will, however, make myself extremely useful to you and your crew."

"Really now? How exactly are you going to be able to help me?"

"For starters I can get your chief medical officer, a Dr. Amy Martin I believe, on to your ship right now. No need for her to make the trip that will undoubtedly take days; she can be here right now."

"Don't you even think…"

"Umm, how did I get here so fast? I was just boarding the shuttle to take me here and now I am here?"

"about it."

"Oh, Captain Blakes, I'm sorry for being so rude. Hello, I am Dr. Martin your new chief medical officer."

"See, Blakey-Boy, I told you I could be of at least some use to your ship. Now please, let me stay?"

At this point I gave up. I told Q that he could join my ship on the condition that he give me at least an hour to prepare for his coming aboard. In the extravagant over the top style that I will come to hate with every part of my very being, he put an hour glass on the bridge that would count the last seconds of peace this ship would enjoy one by one. I ordered Dr. Martin to go down to sickbay and begin getting used to her new work area, and I checked on the progress of Telev's modifications to the shield emitters. I found that instead of Lt. Telev working on it, my chief engineer Lt. Cmd. Erika Durant had taken over the project.

"Sorry sir, but when I asked for her help, Erika took one look at what I was doing and told me to just stand here and hand her tools."

"It was either this or me having to instruct him step by step in how to alter power distribution and the basic mechanics of confinement waves. Besides, I had to write a paper describing how this process could be conceivably done to graduate from the academy. I couldn't resist the chance to put all my ideas into practice."

"Very well, what is your progress?"

"I have managed to narrow the beam created by the generators to one meter in diameter, but I will need to cut that in half if its going to be anywhere near as effective as a phaser."

"Good, when can you have it ready for testing?"

"Hmm, I should be able to give you a practical demonstration within the hour. However, even if I can get this to within normal operating parameters of a phaser array, I can't tell you how powerful it's going to be. A shield generator was never designed to have its beam confined so much. For all I know, it might explode on the spot without ever firing a shot."

"Sir, pardon my interruption, but if I may speak freely there is something that the Commander isn't mentioning.

"Permission granted, what is he hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything sir, I just don't think its really all that important."

"Telev?"

"There is a slight chance that if the field harmonics produced by the shield generator aren't monitored and kept within a very small range the resulting explosion might trigger every shield generator on the ship to explode. At the very least this would make us unable to raise shields until we get each and every one replaced, if there was a ship left when it was all said and done."

"The chance is extremely minute, Captain. The cascade from the explosion would have to create an energy wave with an exact wavelength. Even assuming it did, a catastrophic failure of the force fields surrounding the device would have to occur before it could reach the shield grid."

"Hmm, I trust you will take all necessary precautions to prevent that from happening."

"Yes, sir. We will advise you when it is finished."

I then decided to pay a visit to the good doctor and see how she was enjoying her new sick bay. I regret making such a blatantly stupid move. This was my first command, so I suppose I didn't know any better. Chief medical officers throughout the ages have never liked their sick bay, and Dr. Martin was certainly no exception.

"How are you enjoying your accommodations?"

"What accommodations? This entire place seems like it was designed by a deaf Ferengi! The beds are tremendously uncomfortable. The supply cabinets cannot be accessed without a level three security clearance which means that my staff has to get my permission before they can give someone something for a headache, and do you know how many minor problems show up every day in a ship this size? All that could be dealt with, but I don't even have half the equipment I need to examine my patients. Do you know how many different chemicals are involved in Betazoid telepathy?"

"I get the point doctor. What can I do to help make your sick bay run more smoothly?"

"You can start by having an engineering team add wheels or something to these scanners so that I don't have to move a badly injured patient from bed to bed just to do a thorough examination."

"Yes, doctor, I will have one sent down as soon as possible."

"Before you go, I also need a few more things."

"Yes, yes. Write all your requests down and put it on my desk. I will do all that I can to get all of your modifications completed."

I returned to the bridge expecting to be able to sit in my chair and get a chance to relax and think about the troubling times that lay ahead of me. Unfortunately, with Q there is never a dull moment. When I arrived I found him sitting in my chair wearing a uniform from the ancient Earth sport of hockey.

"Hello Blakey-Boy, I got my skates on and I'm here to play."

"What do you think you are doing? Get out of my chair and off my ship, you still owe me half an hour."

"I have been sitting here in this penalty box for so long. I can feel the ice calling me. I need to be out there with my team. I know we can beat them; you just gotta let me play. You just gotta!"

"You gave me your word that you would leave my ship alone for one hour, and I expect you to give it to me."

"Oh you humans and your reliance on such a primitive time scale. You use numbers based on such an arbitrary base of ten, and for some inane reason you use a base of sixty for your time." Now he donned the apparel of a twentieth century hippie. "You need to free yourself from the constraints of time, man. Man is like so the only species on Earth that even knows what like time is man. You need to reconnect with the Earth. Love the Earth the way it loves you. Free love!"

"Go hug a tree, Q. You told me one hour."

"Why can't they ever assign a fun captain to one of these flying death traps you call a starship?"

"One hour."

"Now, if you really would have listened carefully to me, you would have noticed that I never said a human hour. I choose to use the Naussican hour. Much shorter, but oh so much sexier."

"A Naussican hour is actually twenty-three minutes. You came seven minutes too late, so you broke your word. Now, do you really want to let me win this? You owe me another twenty-six minutes of peace."

"I don't want to wait. Here, I will take us both ahead that much time. I really want to see this shield phaser thing explode. It will be so much fun."

"Telev to Captain Blakes, we have finished the reconfigurations on the shield generator and erected the proper force fields to safeguard the ship. It is ready for the demonstration you wanted."

"I am on my way. I assume there is no way I could make you not come with me?"

"And miss this Blakey-Boy? Not for all the latinum on Ferenginar."

The journey to engineering was an extremely aggravating one. Every time someone passed us in the corridor, Q changed my outfit. I was a giant furry creature, a spider with six plush arms, a surfer, and lastly something called a Jedi Master from some truly revolting Earth science fiction called Star Wars.

"Okay Durant, have you made all the final adjustments to the device?"

"Yes sir, it is ready to go on your signal."

"Very well, proceed with the utmost caution. I do want my ship in one piece after you are done."

Q chose this time to whisper something in my ear, "You know, it isn't going to work Blakey-Boy. The device will malfunction and the chain reaction will destroy every one of your shield generators as well as critically wound half of your crew. As it will turn out, the alterations requested by your doctor could have saved many of them, but the way your sick bay is right now will cause each and every person to die. Do you know what plasma does to the body? I assure you it is not pretty. Tell them to stop."

"_It will work."_

"Did you just hear something, Captain? It sounded like a human male voice, but it was as if he wasn't really there."

"Telev, investigate that voice when this is done."

"What voice Captain?"

"You didn't hear that?"

"I didn't hear that Blakey-Boy. I think you are hallucinating. It happens to the best of humans from time to time. All the stress of working can take its toll."

"Computer, was there a voice in this room just now?"

"There were no auditory signals matching the description given in your area."

"_It will work. Trust in yourself, Captain."_

"There it was again."

"We can investigate this later, proceed with the test."

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, there is still time to back out. I really don't want to see your ship explode on you this early."

"Shut up, Q. Go ahead."

"I hope you don't say I didn't warn you."

The test commenced, and it went perfectly. If there was any problem, it was that it would too well. It would have pierced the force field if we didn't turn it off in time. Evidently the voice was correct, whoever it was.


	3. Chapter 3

**For future reference, I will now include this system to make it easier to understand who is talking at any given moment.**

**Captain William J. Blakes, Human uses HB **(Human Blakes)

**First officer- Commander Luaran, Vorta uses VL **(Vorta Luaran)

**Science officer- Lt. Commander Cylon, Android uses AS **(Android Science)

**Tactical officer- Lt. Telev, Andorian uses LT **(Lt. Telev)

**Chief Engineer- Lt. Commander Erica Durant, Human uses CD **(Commander****Durant)

**Chief Medical officer- Dr. Amy Martin, Human uses DM** (Dr. Martin)

**Q uses Q**

**HB **"Excellent demonstration Durant! This should prove invaluable in the days to come. How long would it take to make the same modifications to a quarter of the ship's shield generators?"

**CD** "Now that we know what we are doing, it shouldn't take more than two days assuming I have the entire engineering department at my disposal"

**AC** "Cylon to Captain Blakes, we have a situation here."

**HB** "What is the problem?

**AS** "Long range sensors show a detachment of twenty Con-Federation warships are on their way to the Bolian home world."

**HB** "How long will it take them to get there?"

**AS** "Thirty-six hours, 21 minutes."

**HB** "Alert Starfleet and plot an intercept course. Durant, if we are not battle ready by the time we engage the Con-Federation, all of the Federation may be lost."

**AS** "Understood, I will do my best, Captain."

My one ship with makeshift weapons against twenty warships armed to the teeth with weapons technology that is centuries ahead of anything Starfleet has. When Starfleet replied to my request for any reinforcements possible, my hopes of victory, even survival were not dramatically increased. They offered five decommissioned museum ships that could be made operational and sent to my aide in two days and a prototype military vessel without a warp drive. That would take at least two weeks in tow to come anywhere close to the Bolian system. Somehow I just didn't think the odds were with me, not that I would have particularly had them in my favor even if I had what little reinforcements available. Never-the-less, if a single planet falls any other could be next.

**Q** "You do realize that this simply won't work, Blakey-Boy?"

**HB** "And what would you have me do instead? Let an invading army simply take worlds unchallenged?"

**Q** "A child race to the bitter end, the Federation can do without Bolarus IX and its endless supply of barbers. You must concentrate your forces around key planets like Vulcan and Earth."

**LT** "Captain, the tactical importance of Andoria cannot be overlooked, and it still maintains a strong army. Andorians could provide the backbone of a ground defense force."

**HB** "Yes, yes, Telev, I am not going to let Andoria or Bolarus IX be conquered. It is not Starfleet's way to simply abandon those that may be weak or tactically unimportant. Worlds joined the Federation for protection and safety, therefore it is Starfleet's duty to ensure their freedom."

**Q** "Well said, Blakey-Boy. I certainly hope you don't buy your own hopeless rhetoric. You, as frightening as it may seem, are the only thing standing between this one group of child races from destroying yours in hopes of gaining power which you pitiful beings find so tempting. I must ask you if it is really Starfleet's way or duty to sacrifice itself and the greater good for some minor engagement?"

**HB** "Telev, I want a full tactical assessment of the situation and ideas to at least give us some chance to defeat the enemy and present it to a meeting of the senior staff in one hour. We have some serious planning to do for the upcoming battle. Luaran, you have the bridge. I will be in my ready room."

**Q** "So tell me, Blakey-Boy, you can't honestly expect that dying in this battle will do anything to help the war effort. Then again, you are human and humans tend to overestimate their own personal importance."

**HB** "If I do not make a stand now, then the Con-Federation will think that they can come in and take any planet they want."

**Q** "See, you just said _I_, not _we_ or _Starfleet_, you said _I._ You clearly think that you are the only hope the Federation has to win this war. You should realize, there is no hope, and you cannot change that."

**HB** "I might not be able to, but you can. You can delay the opposing fleet or at the very least bring the reinforcements to Bolarus before the battle begins."

**Q** "Oh but where would the fun be if I did that? Besides, how can I judge you lesser life forms if I got involved in your petty struggles?"

**HB** "You told me that you would stay on this ship and help. Sounds to me like you left yourself no choice other than doing what I asked."

**Q** "Now, now, now, Blakey-Boy, what kind of omniscient being would I be if I didn't leave myself options? What I will do for you is to give you a shield generator for every one that is modified."

**HB** "Good, at least then our shields will be at full strength while we are still building up weapons."

**Q** "I suppose, but wouldn't diverting the personnel from modification duty to install them weaken your attack strategy?"

**HB** "You mean you won't give us the generators to work on?"

**Q** "Heavens no human, I merely said that I will give you a brand new one for each that you convert into weapons. You need to start looking at the big picture. This way when you are destroyed a salvage team can recover the shield generators and use them in future failed defense operations."

**HB** "I am tired of this. Don't you have any space stations guarding worm holes or captains lost in distant parts of the galaxy to bother?"

**Q** "I know when I'm not wanted. I will go visit my friends at Starfleet Command. There's at least an admiral or two that still loves me there. I will be back in time for this splendid battle strategy meeting that will ultimately serve to make you realize how truly hopeless your chances are."

Peace, dear sweet peace from this eternal annoyance. Now, if I didn't have to fight a battle I am sure to lose in a few hours, I might have enjoyed this time. To be honest, at this point, I had started to lose hope. There really wasn't any conceivable way that the outcome of the engagement could be altered by any degree to create the possibility of any future engagements. However, I felt that the Federation, as a people, needed to know that although, as the Borg once put it, resistance would be futile, that it would still be brought to bear. Mankind has pulled itself out of many a terrible situation in the past, and it is solely due to its indomitable will. Time to go to the meeting that could very easily determine the fate of the galaxy as we know it. I'm sorry if I don't sound too optimistic.

**HB** "Give me whatever suggestions you have. I am open for anything."

**Q** "Yes, do tell! This should be very enjoyable to see. I do so love magicians."

**LT** "I believe there is only one possible way for us to win this fight. We will need those reinforcements from Starfleet to stand a chance against the invasion fleet."

**Q** "So sad then that your precious fleet won't arrive until it's too late. Oh well, I hope the next Enterprise captain will be more fun than you."

**CD** "Not so fast, Q, there is a way the fleet could be there long before the enemy ships move into weapon range."

**HB** "How?"

**CD** "By creating a finite temporal distortion in the area just ahead of the Bolian system. With any luck, it should slow time down enough for our ships to enter the area."

**Q** "Such simple beings, don't you see you are quite literally delaying your inevitable defeat. You can have all the time in the galaxy and that still won't save you."

**HB** "Do it."

Sure, the plan wasn't a great one. Sure, even with the reinforcements we will be out numbered 100 to 1. Sure, in the end, we would lose. Sure, all these disadvantages and more, but the finest minds in the Federation weren't able to provide us with a better idea. To this day, the no tactician has ever been able to determine a better course for our ship than this. Besides, luck was on our side… Maybe not, but at least, someone was.

**LT** "The enemy fleet is approaching within range of the temporal device, Captain."

**HB** "Is it ready, Cylon?"

**AS** "Charging now, sir."

**CD** "Wait, something is happening.

**HB** "What?"

**CD** "There appears to be a power surge in the plasma conduits. It's unstable. We have to shut it down."

**AS** "Unable to do so, sir. The controls aren't responding."

**WC** "It's time. I must help them more directly."

**TT** "If you think so. Do what you believe is right, Wesley."


End file.
